Casual - General Discussion

[Rinaldo]

10 hours ago, Corgi-ears said:

{In reference to my speculation about Spencer getting better...] Nailed it!

Thank you for the tribute, Corgi-ears! [takes a bow] I was feeling pretty smug yesterday, I'll tell you that.

Seriously, I'm well aware that this was not that amazing a piece of prophecy. :) Given that a theme of this show is that none of this family is good at sticking with lovers for the long haul, something like this had to be in this couple's future.

[DesertCyclist]

Tommy Dewey needs to shave.

[Corgi-ears]

8 hours ago, DesertCyclist said:

Tommy Dewey needs to shave.

But what do you think of his eyebrows?

[Whimsy]

I have never been put on a "pick-up" list for prescriptions.  I just walk up and tell them the name on the prescription.  They verify important information (address, phone #), I pay and leave with the prescription.  That scene was weird to me.

I actually felt bad for Spencer.  He was probably elated over no longer having cancer and Laura's all like "sorry- I only liked you when you were dying".  Yuck. I'm glad she apparently changed her mind.

The dad didn't seem too sickly to me to want his death to be that imminent.  I had a hard time with the assisted suicide.  I would get behind it if he were really weak and in massive amounts of pain.  My brother's and I watched my mother die and the thought of essentially killing her and being basically blasé about it is just wrong to me.  Yes, they were a bit teary and held each other's hands when he actually passed and yes he was a terrible father (honestly, my mother was terrible too but I forgave her years before), but I just can't get behind that at all.

Did they move in with Leon?  That confused me.

[tennisgurl]

Interesting end to an interesting season, even if it was hard to watch at times. 

Of all the "Hipster adults or angst filled ironic teens try to find their place in life while also being selfish assholes" series on now, this is one of my favorites. Even if I frequently want to smack the crap out of the main characters.

The Dad wanting to be mercy killed was kind of a weird place to end the season. Could we have had some build up or closure or something.

Whoever called Laura getting immediately bored with Spencer the second his cancer went into remission so called that whole plot. Poor Spencer. he finds out he is not going to die a tragic death, only for his girlfriend to make it all about her, and how disappointed she is that he is going to live. She came around at the end, but still. Between this and her treatment of her friend she slept with, I have really not been enjoying Laura this year. 

The ending songs they choose for these episodes are always great. 

[ganesh]

6 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

The Dad wanting to be mercy killed was kind of a weird place to end the season. Could we have had some build up or closure or something.

The dad didn't seem too sickly to me to want his death to be that imminent. 

The impulsiveness and suddenness of it is in character to me. So is the selfishness of coming over to their house to do it. He might have thought that they wouldn't come to his house if he invited them, but I think they would. How self-centered was the "I did the best I could?" 

I really hope there is fall out with the mother next season too. Val was definitely ripped about it. 

I don't think they moved in with Leon, but I would be interested in Leon getting a second try with Val. I'd like to see Alex start a new company maybe. 

I don't get that they'd send Laura to get the medication. Val had to have known you need to be 18. The scene was kind of fillerish to me.

[EdnasEdibles]

21 hours ago, GenL said:

I have never been put on a "pick-up" list for prescriptions.  I just walk up and tell them the name on the prescription.  They verify important information (address, phone #), I pay and leave with the prescription.  That scene was weird to me.

 

I'm trying to remember with controlled substances. I know that normally for prescriptions it's not a big deal to pick them up - but one of my sons is on ritalin and there are a whole bunch of hoops I have to jump through. I'm pretty sure that only myself or my husband can pick it up for him and we have to sign something that ensures we aren't filling ritalin everywhere in the county to get high. So it might have been related to what the item was more than anything else. 

I totally missed what was wrong with the dad. What exactly was he dying from?

[Corgi-ears]

I know Hulu has renewed the show for a 3rd season, but that almost read as a series finale to me -- which is to say that, as much as I like the show, I almost want it to be. We got, rather hurriedly, the death of the (one of two) person who is supposedly responsible for fucking Alex and Val up.* Val moves out, finally doing something about the codependency. We see Alex at rock bottom, but taking steps, via therapy**, to start getting better. Laura has been a terrible person, but ends by reaching out to Spencer. It feels like these baby steps are as much as we can hope for, and thus the closest thing to a bittersweet ending for these characters. I'm a bit nervous that a Season 3 will try to reset things for the sake of returning the characters to their drama. But hopefully it will continue to show their growth. 

* not that I really understood the logic of Alex's "do you know how it feels to see your parents love freely, and to be yourself lonely?!" Whut?

** with Jennifer, who has apparently gotten over her entirely justified ethical reservations about treating a friend's brother?

 

51 minutes ago, EdnasEdibles said:

I totally missed what was wrong with the dad. What exactly was he dying from?

Something about his liver failing, though they might as well have come right out and said, "THIS MAN IS FULL OF BILE, DO YOU SEE?"

It's possible that I'll mostly remember this season as the one where Kyle Bornheimer lost his slight doughiness and proudly showed his newly-tight ass left, right, and center.

Edited August 24, 2016 by Corgi-ears

[ganesh]

Quote

 not that I really understood the logic of Alex's "do you know how it feels to see your parents love freely, and to be yourself lonely?!" Whut?

The parents had a lot of sex partners/bfs/gfs over the years and didn't really hide it from the kids. Alex was saying that they were all wrapped up in their own relationships and basically left the kids out in the cold. 

Aside from the anvil, the father said, "my organs are shot", kidney failure, etc., and being in a lot of pain, and they made several mentions to him being "large." So I think anything associated with obesity could have done him in. 

I don't have a problem with Alex going to Jenny. She strikes me as professional enough to not talk to Val about it, and I don't think Val is going to hang out with that circle of friends anymore anyway. 

I don't like shows that are the same for 5-7 years, so if they're intending an S3 to be a change of direction, I'm all for it. 

[amaranta]

I think I liked this season better than the first.  There seemed to be a definite journey for all of them that involved letting go.  Alex finally let go of his lost love and his sister (with her moving out of his house, the last going to therapy scene).  Laura at last began to let go of her fear of intimacy with her leaving the movies for Spencer which indicated to me that she could be with someone who was going to live.  Val let go of Drew and her marriage, and told Alex enough - he has to fix himself.  The big letting go involving the parents - helping Dad die and then not going after the mother, acknowledging she had made her choice.  It was a slow start but I like where we ended up.

Quote

I don't like shows that are the same for 5-7 years, so if they're intending an S3 to be a change of direction, I'm all for it. 

Agreed.  I feel like each character, in their own way, has a new beginning. 

I want to see more of Leia; I think she could be interesting.  And I really do adore Leon. 

[7-Zark-7]

On August 23, 2016 at 0:57 PM, tennisgurl said:

Between this and her treatment of her friend she slept with, I have really not been enjoying Laura this year. 

Between her surreptitiously recording sex with her boyfriend and then releasing the video to make her look like a sympathetic victim of his, and her harassment of her Photography teacher, I wasn't enjoying Laura last year either. At what point does one begin to enjoy a shark?

[Corgi-ears]

On 25 August 2016 at 1:02 AM, ganesh said:

The parents had a lot of sex partners/bfs/gfs over the years and didn't really hide it from the kids. Alex was saying that they were all wrapped up in their own relationships and basically left the kids out in the cold. 

I took Alex's statement less to be one about the parents' physical presence, and more about the kinds of psychological lessons it taught them. In which case I don't necessarily get why witnessing his parents' free love, polygamous way of life would led to Alex's inability to connect with people. Why wouldn't the kid that is Alex conclude, instead, that loving is easy, that it's simple to reach out to and connect with people? I am not actually saying that the latter conclusion is right, but the former is no more right or wrong than the latter. It just seems like sloppy pop psychology, on the part of the show as much as on the part of Alex. *Shrugs*

[possibilities]

I thought Alex was saying this parents were busy fucking and "loving" all the time, surrounding themselves by what as a kid looked like love from Alex's point of view, while they were also ignoring him and his sister. So he felt that they loved themselves and a horde of strangers, but not him or Val. The neglect in the midst of exuberant pursuit of love struck him as a crushing statement that he and Val were nothing to them, and not because they were incapable of love, but because they found the kids unlovable.

As adults, we realize that there is a difference between parental love and what his parents were doing, but Alex was talking about how his upbringing felt to him at the time, and how that influenced his development, having nothing else to go on.

"You loved a lot of people, but you never loved us. And you threw it in our faces, besides"

Edited August 27, 2016 by possibilities

[ganesh]

11 hours ago, Corgi-ears said:

I took Alex's statement less to be one about the parents' physical presence, and more about the kinds of psychological lessons it taught them.

That's what I meant, but it was also stuff like the dad telling a 5 y/o playing indians that native americans were slaughtered. He also could have viewed all the poly stuff as empty because people were always in and out of the house and the parents themselves never had much of a relationship.  I mean, the mother bolted when he was dying. 

[sasha206]

I have only just started to watch this show and I'm not sure I can take it.  I'm only in episode 4 and I feel like the characters are every character we've ever seen before and that talking about sex, having sex, isn't really all that edgy or funny.  Alex is far too smarmy for my takes and Laura, the daughter of Valerie looks like she is pushing 35 instead of a being a 16 year-old for me to believe.  Does it get better? 

[sasha206]

On 12/12/2015 at 11:28 AM, stanleyk said:

 

To be fair, at the start of their conversation, she did ask him if she could blog about what he had said, and he said yes. The fact that he was dismissive of bloggers and then acted like a jerk towards her pretty squarely puts the blame on him for what ended up happening. I suppose she didn't ask him if she could disclose every minute of their encounter, but she did tell him she was a blogger.

 

I was enjoying this series - Michaela Watkins is great. But I have to say the events of the last episode kind of turned me off a bit. It seems profoundly fucked up that Alex appeared to be pleased that his sister had slept with his girlfriend in order to break them up, like it was proof of how much she needed him. But it was presented as...sweet? I guess? Not severely co-dependent and dysfunctional. I was entirely on Emmy's side in that conversation, but I wasn't confident the show meant me to be.

 

And, really, killing Carl? That was a bit much. And as someone who has been heavily involved in animal rescue, it also challenged my suspension of disbelief. If Carl were a seven year old pit mix, ok, I can see that happening. But three month old chocolate lab puppies in a large city shelter get adopted - at the shelter where I've worked, puppies are literally adopted within an hour of being available for adoption, and labs are the most popular breed in the US. And, also, it was super-inconsistent that the guy at the store? shelter? whatever that place was that kept a weird puppy enclosure in the middle of the store - would drop an unsold puppy at a kill shelter. Just...no. Weirdly specific rant over. 

 

Despite my irritation with the last episode, I'm still in on this show, because I have some affection for Alex and Valerie, and to see if Alex can start to get his shit together and to see if Valerie puts her life back together, but I find Laura to be completely insufferable and delusional. And the parents...oy. So terrible it's hard to watch. I will say this - I do hope the show acnowledges that casual sex can be fun and fulfilling. It started out that way, I think, but it seems to be veering in a much more conventional, judgmental direction, where casual sex is really empty and soul-destroying and what everyone really wants is a stable, long-term relationship.

I can't stand the character Laura and the actress who plays her.  She looks like she's closer to 40 than 16, for one.  I also hate it when they portray 16 year-olds as being wise, worldly, sophisticated.  Just completely unrealistic.  And that would be okay if the show was funny.  But it really isn't.

[Rinaldo]

Since you asked, I would say, if your reaction is that negative, leave it and move on. There's too much TV available for anyone to need to watch something they don't enjoy.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Rinaldo

[Corgi-ears]

1 hour ago, sasha206 said:

the daughter of Valerie looks like she is pushing 35 instead of a being a 16 year-old for me to believe.  Does it get better? 

Well, she certainly doesn't get younger in the course of the show. 

[ganesh]

She's 23. 

[GinnyMars]

On 29/08/2016 at 2:31 PM, sasha206 said:

I have only just started to watch this show and I'm not sure I can take it.  I'm only in episode 4 and I feel like the characters are every character we've ever seen before and that talking about sex, having sex, isn't really all that edgy or funny.  Alex is far too smarmy for my takes and Laura, the daughter of Valerie looks like she is pushing 35 instead of a being a 16 year-old for me to believe.  Does it get better? 

I didn't have the same problems with it that you do - I found the first few episodes quite boring and hated Laura -, but yes, it does get better. I'm attached to everyone on the show now, even Laura, kinda sorta.

[scrb]

They really didn't emphasize the affluent suburb aspect of this but this show is a lot like Weeds, without the pot aspect of it.

But the same kind of hyper sexuality lurking in suburbia vibe, especially with precocious Laura who gets to do anything or pretty much anyone she wants.

If she had seduced the teacher, you don't get the sense that Valerie would have been that outraged or would have tried to set hard boundaries or limits on her.

In season 2, her 16-year old is going to a party at USC and Valerie asks about the rules and Laura repeats -- condoms ... Uber Select to get home.  So she's enabling Laura's lifestyle and choices.  She can go party with older guys and just bill the Uber rides to her credit card.

She's a therapist by profession so she has some kind of clinical foundation for not only being laissez-faire with her underage daughter but emotionally and financially supporting her choices?

[Lone Wolf]

Just finished Ep 5 ("Mom").

So I guess the English-guy-one-night- stand-guy is a cast member and not a one-off.

Nice to see Ruth Fisher again. Looking much healthier than the last time I saw her.

This show's developing a real Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce vibe.  I quickly went from curiosity to hate-watching to tuning out Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce.

[ganesh]

Will there be a new thread to talk about the third season?

[Corgi-ears]

Well, that was an interesting twist.

[ChelleGame]

I'm having a hard time with these characters this season. The writers are addressing the circumstances that made them this way but their collective level of shittiness is harder to take for some reason.

Torn as to whether or not to keep watching. I think the daughter's treatment of her high school boyfriend (the sick kid with the sweet face) just made my blood boil. And then her laughter at the memorial for her grandfather. Maybe I'm bringing my own shit to this but - I may have reached my breaking point.

[tennisgurl]

I can see more and more why Alex and Valerie are as messed up as they are, and I appreciate that they are making tiny little baby steps towards getting it together, or at least making some actual progress in their lives. I do actually have some affection for them, because I can occasionally relate to the awkward situations they end up in, and the writers give them some good dialogue, even when they're being shitty and making their problems worse by just being ridiculous. Laura on the other hand? I cant stand her. I don't understand why she does anything she does, and its becoming clear that she has really severe behavioral problems, and I think the show wants it to be "quirky" and not just messed up. She actually makes me dislike Val and Alex more because of how they refuse to actually deal with her clear issues and bizarre, shitty behavior. I mean, stealing a religious icon from the house of the boy you just met and have been flirting with? What? That's both awful and nonsensical.

[ganesh]

I thought the scene at the memorial was great. The facial expressions were perfect on Alex and Val, and when you think how Val just never even had a shot to be well adjusted, it's just tragic, and you have to laugh. Also Laura had been drinking so her outburst I could buy. 

I actually liked that Laura tried to con both parents about the tattoo removal and got caught. That was a fairly regular teen thing to do. I do think she's being self-destructive with taking the thing at the party. I don't think it was actually a conscious act because she seemed confused herself. I think she's acting out because of the way she treated the guy from last season. Also, she's 17. It's hard to dump on her too much because her mother isn't helping. Val's all up in her own deal and isn't realizing her daughter's acting out needs to be addressed. 

Did it seem like Alex was disappointed the kid wasn't his? 

I don't have a problem with tv characters that aren't likeable. This was kind of the premise of the show, so it's not like the writers are making them unlikeable for no reason. It's within the context of the show from the start. 

[Rinaldo]

22 hours ago, ChelleGame said:

I think the daughter's treatment of her high school boyfriend (the sick kid with the sweet face) just made my blood boil.

It seemed certain that it would go this way, though, as soon as her pairing with him became established. I think it's the one time I've ever felt moved to make a plot prediction on a TV show, it was so inevitable that she could only care about him if there was a cutoff date.

21 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

its becoming clear that she has really severe behavioral problems, and I think the show wants it to be "quirky" and not just messed up. 

I disagree. As with the matter just mentioned, the show seems very definite that she, like her mother and uncle, is seriously messed up. We can see bit by bit some of the reasons why they are, as @tennisgurl said, but that doesn't let them off the hook. They're still behaving horribly so much of the time. The one that made my blood boil in this newest episode was their treatment of Leon, whom they've practically forced at gunpoint to be part of their lives, and now that he's being so bold as to make some overtures himself, he gets treated like a nonentity.

[amaranta]

I've decided I want Leon and Lena to get together.  She obviously likes him and Leon deserves to be treated well, something Alex and Val seem incapable of doing.  I think they'd be cute and then of course Alex and Val would get all jealous and territorial.  Because that's who they are.

I mainly watch because I like Michaela Watkins but I have grown quite fond of Leon.

[ganesh]

Leon is kind of a sad sack. I mean, Val was never into him. She said so in S1. There's nothing wrong with being friends with Alex and her, but he's old enough to pick up on that. 

[ChelleGame]

16 hours ago, ganesh said:

I don't have a problem with tv characters that aren't likeable. This was kind of the premise of the show, so it's not like the writers are making them unlikeable for no reason. It's within the context of the show from the start. 

I agree. Not a requirement for me either. And I am on season three so there's that. But  like it's stated so eloquently above, the writers have taken the time to really address/dig into the Val and Alex of it all but Lauren (beyond being a teenager) hasn't benefited as much.

Maybe I'll take a break and come back to it after a bit.

[ganesh]

Well, I think Laura seems to be on an uptick now. I liked her hustling for signatures and then chewing the dude out when he called her an entitled millennial, which I find a tired insult, and I think that was the point. 

Val/Top Knot was hilarious. Probably kind of her fault for agreeing to the date when she only wanted an fwb situation, but clearly, it seems like he wouldn't have gone for that either way. That whole story about the Greatest Love of All was hilarious. I mean, good for the actor to deliver such inanity with such seriousness, and I can't believe how everyone wasn't cracking up the whole time. She learned her lesson though, she was direct with the coffee guy. 

I knew Alex was disappointed about not being the dad, but give me a break. I'm in my early 40s, my knees are fine, and I'm not washed up. I do feel kind of bad about his job interview. I mean, his company was successful and he's responsible for the algorithm (which I'm surprised isn't patented), and this new job seems way beneath him. On the other hand, it's a job. Work there for a while and figure out what's next to do. 

[Corgi-ears]

The show has turned a corner, I think. I hope. After the claustrophobia of the first half of the season, the writers have really opened up the worlds of the three leads (and populated it with some pretty awesome comedy hey-it's-that-guys -- yay, Judy Greer!). In so doing the lightness of spirit and humor seem to have returned.

Funny that it (perhaps) regained its form with an episode called "Troubleshooting."

Edited June 14, 2017 by Corgi-ears

[megsara]

I assume that was Lena in Leon's bed?  We could only see her legs, but I would be surprised if it wasn't.  I've been shipping them since the party last season when they bonded over Lena's poem.  I loved that Leon had fun with the Airbnb lady's group.  He deserves it!!  

[ganesh]

I did love Val telling off the gf. How is it Val's fault if the guy didn't say he had a gf? 

That complaint the woman filed was a bunch of nothing and really unfair considering the heaps of abuse she piled on Alex the entire time. Considering his outburst didn't insult her or anything. Honestly, if it was reversed and it was a guy calling a woman 'r*******', he'd probably be sued. 

More Judy Greer please. 

Edited June 16, 2017 by ganesh

[tennisgurl]

Leon shows up with cheese: "Whos side are you on Leon?!?!"

That woman who was being super rude to Alex when her computer was being too slow for her liking deserved to go to HR more than Alex did. Alex isn't always the nicest guy, but he had the high ground on that one.

Laura really does have an issue hooking up with older people, or wanting to. And when Val actually shows some concern about this issue, Laura gets all pissy and goes off to probably have a thing for her new boss. Girl has got issues.

You know, the show is totally right about cats being great to catch rats. My house growing up had a serious rat problem, and we used all kinds of traps, and none worked. Then we got a cat (we didn't even think about her being a rat killer, my dad just found a stray kitten and brought her home, after a visit to the vet), and than all of our rats were gone within a month.  

[ganesh]

I didn't have a problem with Val bringing up the subject with Laura. This was the first time Val learned that Laura had a new job, then she brings home a (somewhat) older woman to whom she's clearly attracted. Maybe the timing wasn't the best, but it's a fair conversation to have. 

I'm blanking on her name, but I think she's in the process of slowly seducing Laura. The reason for firing the boy was ridiculous and just a pretense from what I saw. 

I'm glad Leon flat out said he wasn't into Val. His conversation in the kitchen with the assistant was really well done. People should talk more honestly like that. 

[possibilities]

Leon may be kind of a sad sack, but he's not the instigator of other people's troubles, either. And when he gets fucked over, he doesn't tantrum. That makes him one of the more likable people on the show, weirdly enough. He's sort of an adult, even if a sad one. I hope he was being honest that he wasn't into Val, and not just saying that so he wouldn't be alone, though.

Is it true that Californians don't put their trash on the curb? How does that work? Where I live, there's no curbside pick up and people bring their trash directly to the dump, but I don't imagine that would work in a big city.

I have decided I like Alex's housemate. I hated her at first, but she's actually pretty decent. A little nosy, but not full of shit either.

I love how Val's clients are all so totally fucked up in the most petty and annoying ways, and it's kind of perfect because Val herself is really not any better.

I really don't understand Laura. She seems to be very capable when she bothers, but she is also hellbent on not bothering, and then sabotaging whatever she bothers with. She's the ultimate in "could be likable and successful but chooses to be obnoxious and useless."

[7-Zark-7]

This show needs to come out with all of it's episodes at once, because binging is the best way to watch it. Too many episodes seem to go by with nothing of consequence happening. It's only when the season is taken in as a whole that I can really appreciate it.

[yourmomiseasy]

On 6/26/2017 at 8:22 PM, possibilities said:

Is it true that Californians don't put their trash on the curb? How does that work? Where I live, there's no curbside pick up and people bring their trash directly to the dump, but I don't imagine that would work in a big city.

 

Trash collection varies by municipality, there isn't one system for the entire state.  In the city of Los Angeles, where this show takes place, we have big wheeled bins for our trash, yard waste, and recycling that you wheel down to the curb the night before trash day and the city picks  it up (assuming you are in a single family home, duplex, triplex, etc and not a large apartment complex).  This is different from NYC where for the most part they do not have the bins and just put bags of trash at the curb. 

[possibilities]

Hm. I have never lived anywhere that you could just put a bag out without it being in a bin. That seems insane to me. Even in the more densely populated places I've lived, where there was curbside pick up, everyone had a closed can or bin with a lid; otherwise you're inviting trouble.

[ruby24]

Laura's storylines are annoying because every year it seems like they just toss her into a group of completely new, random people (sometimes in the same season even) and none of it lasts into the next season. 

I think it might be leading to a rift with her and Valerie, but I hope that gets here sooner rather than later, because this older woman trying to pick her up is creepy.

I think they should have left her in high school and given her a much more innocent, platonic teenage guy friend that she eventually falls for or something. Somebody who can work as a contrast to her cynicism and harshness. That would make her more sympathetic too.

[ganesh]

They kind of did that with the cancer kid. I guess he wasn't platonic, but that was basically her high school plot. I actually don't mind that Laura isn't in high school (it's summer so she wouldn't be anyway) because I feel like that's kind of been done before. But I take your point. I thought the whole gist was that Laura is aimless because Val is basically a negligent parent. I'd actually like to see more of Laura and the dad interact. 

I don't really like this older woman though because she strikes me as someone who would have voted for the moron Jill Stein because "Clinton is just as bad" even though she's someone who will be most affected now. Also, isn't Laura 17 still? She's being predatory. 

I would be DEVASTATED if Judy Greer turned me down for a date. 

I totally get why the roommate would be weirded out if she and Alex had sex, but she's being insulting the way she's acting and frankly, childish. You're both adults. I do like their friendship though. 

Leon's weekend was so cute. 

I find it a little absurd that they'd destroy the house for the photo shoot. I take their point about breaking the waffle iron, but I think the whole scene was sloppy to get to that. 

I found Val a little boorish in Fresno. It's fair she is angry about Jack, but taking it out on the family wasn't nice. They have a nice house and seem to be doing ok, you don't have to like it Val, but it's really not your life is it? I get it from people about moving from the big city to where I am now, which is most certainly not the big city, but I'm like, "yeah it's so awful sitting out on the front porch of my 3 bed 2 bath house with fenced in yard while you have a wine tasting party in your tiny apartment that costs 4x as much." 

Edited July 4, 2017 by ganesh

[possibilities]

Val seems to  be regressing. She was a semi-adult last season, but now she seems completely checked out and her behavior is worse than  Laura's half the time.

I am starting to see Laura's craving for adult attention as a result of both her parents acting like irresponsible teenagers, so she's trying to connect with adults to figure out what the hell adults might be. It's unfathomable that she'd be ready to leave home in a year-- I don't see her being even remotely ready, nor do I see the adults of her family trying to prepare her in any way.

Judy Greer is awesome, but I do think it's a bad idea for her to date Alex. The workplace situation makes it extremely bad policy, all other possible pros and cons aside.

[ganesh]

I didn't think it's still a big deal if a guy shaves/grooms his body hair. I've been doing it since before it's been a thing, and I've never had any problems. I don't get what's up with Alex because Judy Greer seemed fine with it. 

[ruby24]

Alex and Valerie have such a fucked up/fascinating brother-sister relationship. That whole dinner, especially where she rubs Fresno in his face just to hurt him or something, there's all these weird layers going on that poor Judy and Jack don't even get. They want to control each other in such strange ways. She wants him to be as miserable as she is, when she's feeling miserable. Judy's super nice, but Valerie's almost jealous again, like with that girlfriend he had in the first season. And he doesn't want her to do anything that doesn't involve him, which is why he tried to control the whole situation with the half brother from the beginning.

Edited July 12, 2017 by ruby24

[possibilities]

I like Alex's girlfriend and her son and Alex's roommate more than I like Alex, and Val's boyfriend more than I like Val. I don't think the show is at all earning Laura's reaction to her "friend who moved" and it feels like the show is just wallowing at this point, not really showing any kind of character development.

[ganesh]

I thought it was mildly disturbing that Alex got over his impotence problem right after going over to hang out with Val. 

I'm concerned with Laura. She's obviously in love with the older asian woman, and that's fine, but she's really depressed that she's moving to Sacramento, now she's drinking a lot because of it, and Val has no idea what's going on. 

4 minutes ago, possibilities said:

I don't think the show is at all earning Laura's reaction to her "friend who moved" and it feels like the show is just wallowing at this point, not really showing any kind of character development.

She's being pouty and acting her age for a change from what I'm seeing. I think the show did the bare minimum with them, and they did have the wife give the speech to Laura and I thought that they were laying it out with that. 

I like Alex when he's with the roommate. 

[possibilities]

Wow. So Valerie and Alex have changed places and Laura's gone totally off the rails.

[Corgi-ears]

Honestly, at this point I'm not sure I can tell you what this show is about.